The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Book I-VIII

Renowned first as a playwright, then as a jurist and organizer of the Bow Street Runners (a squadron of elite London policemen), Henry Fielding is remembered today almost exclusively for his career as a novelist. Encountering Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela, Fielding became so infuriated by Richardson's moralistic posturing that he dashed off a parody entitled Shamela. In satirizing Richardson's novelistic style, Fielding developed a style of his own that he employed to great effect in his best-known work, Tom Jones.